MarginaliaThis is my body, expounded.had a very & true body. For a thing which is vaine and fantasticall, can receyue no figure. So that in both places we may clearely perceiue hys interpretation of these wordes: Thys is my bodye: Which interpretatiō is not new but authentike or full aunciēt, lyke as is the writer. And this interpretatiō do I the rather allow, because none of the old Doctours, which folowed hym, did euer improue hym therefore, but rather haue followed it, as appeareth by holy Augustine. In the Preface vppon the third Psalme, doth the sayd Augustine hyghly commend the wonderfull suffraunce of Christ, MarginaliaThe pacience of Christ in suffering Iudas.whiche so long dyd suffer and forbeare Iudas, as if hee had bene a good and an honest mā: where as notwithstandyng he dyd know hys trayterous thoughtes, when he receyued hym to the feast or supper, in whiche he dyd commende and delyuer to hys Disciples, the figure of his body and bloud. MarginaliaAugust.The wordes of Austen in Latine, be these. In historia noui Testamenti, ipsa domini nostri tanta & tam admiranda patiētia erat, quòd eum tandiu pertulit tanquam bonum. &c. In the Story of the nevv Testamēt, the pacience of our Lord vvas so great and so to be marueiled at, because he suffered Iudas so long as a good man, vvhen as he knevve hys thoughtes vvhen hee receaued hym to the feast, MarginaliaThe sacrament a figure of the Lordes body.in the vvhich he did commend and deliuer the figure of his bodye and bloude to hys Disciples.

The same holy Doctour also, writyng agaynst Adamantius, sayth thus: Non enim dubitauit Dominus dicere, Hoc est corpus meum, cum daret signum corporis sui. MarginaliaAugust. contra Adamantum.For the Lorde did not doubt to say: This is my bodye, vvhen he gaue a signe of his bodye. And for a further declaration of the same Chap. he sayth: Sic enim sanguis est anima, quomodo petra erat Christus? &c. For the bloude is so the soule, as the rocke vvas Christ. Notvvithstanding hee doth not say that the rocke did signifie Christ: but he doth say that the rocke vvas Christ. Expressely doth Augustine here call the signe of Christes body, his body, playnly interpretyng these wordes: Thys is my bodye, as both he and Tertulian dyd before. MarginaliaThe phrase of Scripture.Moreouer he taketh these three sentences: Thys is my bodye: the soule is the bloud: and Christ vvas the stone, to bee of one phrase, and to be lyke speaches, or to be expoūded after one fashion. And this text: The rocke vvas Christ, doth he cōmonly thus expound: The rocke did signifie Christ, MarginaliaAugust. de Ciuit. lib. 18. ca. 48.as appeareth lib. 18. de Ciuitate Dei. cap. 48. Also in the booke of questions vpon Genesis, and in the booke of questions vpon Leuiticus, hādelyng the xxviij. Chap. of Iohn: and in hys Sermon of the Annunciation of our Lady.

MarginaliaHierom. in 1. Cor. cap. 1.In like manner also S. Hierome expoundeth it in the small Scholies writtē vpon the first Chapter of the fyrst Epistle to the Corinthians, and all other writers with one consent, so farre as I can reade: and so doth the text require it to be expoūded. For Christ was not a naturall stone, as all men maye well perceyue, and yet was he the very true stone fyguratiuely, MarginaliaLyranus.as Lyra sayth: Solet res quæ significat, nomine rei quam significat, nominari. The thing vvhich signifieth is vvonte to bee called by the name of the thing vvhiche it doth signifie? And so is the stone signifying Christ, called Christ which therby is signifyed. And as he doth approue this texte: The stone vvas Christ, likewise doth he expounde: The bloude is the soule, with the which he doth knytte this texte: MarginaliaThis is my body, a figuratiue speach.Thys is my body, to bee figuratiuely expounded, as they bee. According to this, doth the holy Doctour write, Psalme. 50. Nisi quis manducauerit carnem meam, non videbit vitam æternam. &c. MarginaliaAugust. in Psal. 50.Vnlesse a man doe eate my fleshe, hee shall not see eternall life. They vnderstoode that very folishlye, and conceaued the same carnally, and thought that our Lorde vvoulde cutte avvay lumpes or peeces of hys bodye, and geue to them. And they sayd: Thys is an harde saying. But they vvere hard of beliefe, and not the saying. For if they had not bene harde, but meeke, they vvould haue sayd to them selues: He speaketh not this vvithout a cause, but because there is some hidde sacramēt or mysterye therin. They should haue aboden vvith him easie of beliefe & not hard, & then should they haue learned of him that vvhich other learned that taried, after they vvere gone avvay. In this may we see, þ^t our Sauiour willeth his precious flesh to be eatē. But for þ^e maner of eating, is & hath bene much controuersie. The Iewes of Capernaum were offended with Christ, when he sayde, he would haue hys fleshe eaten: and except a mā shoulde eate his fleshe, he coulde not come to lyfe eternall. They supposed grossely, and vnderstode hym (if a man myghte so playnely speake it) butcherly, that hee woulde cut out lumpes and peeces out of his bodye, as the butcher doth out of dead beastes, and so geue it them to eate of, as Augustine doth here saye. And vpon this grosse, or (as holye Augustine doth there call it) folishe and fleshly vnderstandyng, they were offended, and sayed to hym: This is a sore or harde sayinge. They did shoote forth their bolte, and vnwise sayinge ouer sone, and were offended before they had cause. They toke that for harde and sore, whiche should haue ben passing pleasaunt and profitable to thē, if they woulde haue heard the thynge declared throughly to the ende.

And euen so now, that whiche in this matter may appeare at the first blush, a sore, straunge, and intollerable sentence, for as much as we haue not heard of it beofre, but the contrary hath of long tyme bene beaten into our heades and persuaded to our myndes, yet by deliberation and indifferēt hearyng, and abydyng a triall of that which at the first may appeare sore and intollerable, shall (I trust) be foūd a sweete truth, to such specially as your grace is, louyng to heare and to know all truth. But the Capernaites were hard, as here sayth Augustine, and not the word. For if they had not bene harde, but soft and pacient to heare, they would haue sayd in thē selues. Christ saith not this without a cause, & there is some hyd mistery therin: and so by pacient taryaunce, they should haue knowen the truth, MarginaliaHastynes a great hynderaunce of true iudgement.that they could not attaine to for peruerse hastynes, or hast, which is a great stoppe and let of true iudgement. But the Disciples taried paciently, to heare farther, and so dyd they know this speach of Christ to be the wordes of lyfe, that to the other, ouer readyly departyng from Christ, were wordes of death: For they tooke thē litterally and grossely, and the letter (as Paule sayth) sleyeth.Marginalia2. Cor. 3.

But to shewe what the Disciples, remayning with Christ, did learne, S. Augustine doth consequently shew by the wordes of the Gospell, saying thus: Ille autem instruxit cos, & ait illis. Spiritus est qui viuificat, caro nihil prodest. &c. But he instructed them, and sayd vnto them: The spirite is that vvhich geueth life, the fleshe profiteth nothing. The vvordes that I haue spokē vnto you, are spirite and life. Vnderstand you that vvhich I haue spokē spiritually. You shall not eate thys body vvhich you see: neither shall you drinke that same bloud vvhich they shall sheede forth that shall crucifie me. MarginaliaThe wordes of the sacramēt are to be vnderstand spiritually.I haue set forth to you a certaine Sacrament or mysterye, vvhich being spiritually vnderstand, shall geue you life: and although it be requisite that thys be celebrated visiblye, yet it ought to be vnderstand inuisiblye. In thys do we see, that both Christ and Augustine would haue Christes words to be vnderstād spiritually and not carnally: figuratiuely , & not literally, and therefore doth he say: You shall not eate this body vvhich you see, neither shall you drinke that same bloud vvhich they shall shede forth that shall crucifie me. And what els is this, but þ^t Christ woulde his body to be eaten, & his bloud to be dronken? MarginaliaThe body of Christ is not to be eaten carnally.But he would not his body to be carnally eaten, which was materially sene of them to whom he spake, nor his materiall or naturall bloud to be carnally dronken, which his crucifiers should cause to issue from his naturall body crucified, as sayth Augustine: but he ordained & willed his body and bloud to be spiritually eaten and dronkē in faith and beliefe, that his body was crucified for vs, & that his bloud was shed for the remission of our sinnes.

This eating and drincking is nothing but suche true fayth and beliefe, as is shewed. Wherfore as Christ sayth: He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my bloud, hath life euerlasting: euen so doth he say: He that beleueth in me, hath life euerlasting. And S. Augustine agreably to the same, treating vppon Iohn, doth saye: At quid paras ventrem & dentem? Crede & manducasti. &c. MarginaliaAugust. in Ioan.VVhy doost thou prepare thy teeth and thy bellye? beleue and thou hast eaten. I doo knowe that Christ ordayneth hys Sacrament to be receyued and eaten, which is in a certayne wyse, called hys bodye, as after shall be more largelye opened: but the same doth not feade the mynde of men, except it be taken spiritually and not corporally. Hebre. 13. It is good to stablishe the hart vvith grace, and not vvith meate. And S. Augustine assenting to the same, doth say in a Sermon, that he maketh vpon these wordes, in the Gospell of Luke,Lorde teach vs to praye. Panem dixit, sed epiousion, hoc est supersubstantialem. &c. MarginaliaAugust. in Serm. de verbis Luca.Hee sayd bread, but supersubstantiall bread. This is not the bread, vvhich goeth into the body: but that bread vvhich doth satisfye the substance of our soule. Our soules therfore, into whom nothing corporal can corporally enter, doth not carnally receyue the bodye and bloud of our Sauiour, neyther did he ordayne his blessed bodye and bloude so to be eaten and dronken. Although our soules cā not lyue, except they be spiritually fedde with the blessed body and bloud of hym, spiritually eating and drincking them, in taking also at tymes conuenient, MarginaliaThe Sacrament truly called the body and bloud of Christ.the blessed Sacrament, which is truly called his bodye & bloud: Not that it is so really, but as is shewed by the interpretation both of Tertullian and Augustine, because it is a signe or figure of Christes bodye and bloude. And the